Unless you are a true believer, it’s not easy to get excited about driving games, but Forza Horizon really drove home this point about gaming worlds reaching new pinnacles of desirability. Colorado at dawn, gleaming automobiles, the sun rising in the East. It was lump-in-the-throat lovely

Exit Theatre Mode

Fable is another universe that pleases the eye, though this trailer for Fable: Journey was one of the least memorable moments, spoiled, perhaps, by the cheezy-introduction of an awe-struck young man with magical powers in the palms of his hands. Sheeesh! Of course, we always knew Kinect would be muscling its way into the party, like Microsoft’s big, dumb pal from the High School football team. More on that to come.

If the backgrounds and settings of the games we saw were amazing, the action was downright horrifying. We saw a lot of people die this morning, mostly meeting their maker in bone-crunching, artery-squirting excruciation.

A small posse of Middle Eastern bad guys, for example, always looked like temporary guests, once Sam Fisher’s chevrons appeared ominously over their heads. In the excellent walkthrough for Splinter Cell: Blacklist there was plenty of military mayhem.

In the shadow of awe-inspiring Persian terrain, we witnessed killin’-in-motion, gruesomely fluid executions to the faint melody of minarets. There was applause from the audience at this, although some laughter at the unlikely stupidity of a guard confused by Fisher’s “Hey, You” dumb diversion tactic.

Exit Theatre Mode

And yet, this was merely a plate of Middle Eastern hors d’oeuvres for those in the audience keen to see some truly crimson violence. Resident Evil 6 gave us Leon Kennedy in the midst of an urban zombie-pocalypse, heading straight for the decrepit, abandoned factory for some decapitation, dismemberment and death-by-roundhouse.

Introducing South Park: The Stick of Truth, Trey Parker and Matt Stone gave voice to this notion that games today look really convincing. “[The game] had to look just like South Park, which is pretty crappy,” said Stone. “You won’t believe how much work went into creating that crappy look.”

These two celebs got the warmest reception of the day, more even than multi-Superbowl winner Joe Montana who strolled on to show us how Kinect might work with Madden NFL 13. EA’s sports games look great. How far they will actually be played via Kinect remains to be seen, but Montana was convinced. “This is actually pretty sweet,” he said. “It brings back some great memories.”